746 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 



elevate as well as those which depress, emotions which heal as well 

 as those which destroy. And here again, as in fatigue and in repose, 

 in sleep and in the waking state, we find a remarkable illustration 

 of the oscillations of mind. 



Let us now leave those phenomena which may be regarded as 

 normal and examine the characteristics of mental diseases. Here 

 we shall find phenomena of exactly the same sort as those which 

 have already been discussed. Pathological psychology owes much 

 to the study of hysteria. That hysteria is characterized by phenom- 

 ena which are analogous to those which have been established in 

 fatigue, in the sleeps, and in the emotions, is clearly evident from 

 the different theories of hysteria which have been advocated. Cer- 

 tain investigators have insisted that hysteria is a purely emotional 

 disturbance (the old theory of Briquet). Others have held that 

 hysteria is a sleep-disease a neurotic disturbance which is due to 

 an excess of sleep (Sollier). Others, again, find an analogy between 

 hysteria and fatigue, and make the former the effect of an excessive 

 degree of the latter (as Fe>6 did in 1885). As for myself, I am an 

 out-and-out eclectic; I believe that hysteria is a disorder of emo- 

 tion, of sleep, and of fatigue, because all of them are at bottom 

 precisely the same thing. In hysteria one may observe the same 

 intensely exaggerated agitations as are to be found in convulsions, 

 crises, spasms, hallucinations, and in all other cases in which ideas 

 develop automatically as a result of suggestion. One may observe 

 the same feelings of weariness, of powerlessness, and of automatism. 

 "I can see my arms and my legs moving, but it does not seem to be 

 myself. I am a marionette and somebody is pulling the string." 

 One may observe especially the same depressions and the same 

 inefficiency of the higher cerebral functions. Permit me to recall my 

 investigations upon aboulia, aprosexia, and amnesia in hystericals. 1 

 If an act is even moderately novel, if a situation presents a problem 

 to be solved, the hysterical remains inert and powerless. 



It is a remarkable fact that the disturbances of mental synthesis 

 which occur in hysteria bear a close resemblance to the oscillations 

 of mind which have already been described. For example, sugges- 

 tion, which plays so important a role in this disease, can only be 

 explained from the absence of antagonistic ideas which might 

 counteract the idea suggested. This fact shows that the idea re- 

 mains isolated in the mind of the hysterical, that it develops in the 

 midst of a void, that the picture is not inclosed in a frame. And 

 this is exactly what has been found to be characteristic of dreams. 

 The anesthesias, and frequently the paralyses, of the hysterical, 

 alike consist of a reduction or narrowing of consciousness which is 



1 The Mental State of Hystericals, translated by C. C. Corson, 1901, p. 117. 



